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Stop whatever you’re doing right now. Take in what’s going on. There’s this guy. Not just any guy. He’s unlike any guy, actually, living or dead.
Not talking about MJ, LeBron, Karee, Wilt, Oscar, Jerry West, Bird, Magic, or Julius Irving. All phenomenal hoopers.
But they weren’t and aren’t this guy. No one is this guy. There will never be another one like this guy. Never.
This guy is Nikola Jokic who plays for the Denver Nuggets. Last night he scored 31 points and added 21 rebounds plus 22 assists.
In one game.
No one – I repeat – no one has ever posted a stat line that gaudy since James Naismith invented the sport in 1891. Count them: 136 years.
The thing is, this guy’s been having games like this for five straight years on his way to three MVP Awards and the NBA Finals MVP. Last year he had a third quarter in a playoff game that I swear was the best display of basketball perfection I’ve ever seen. It caused me to call my friends and family early the next morning I was so overcome with his mastery and mysterious genius.
That’s what genius is: mysterious. Geniuses can never explain how they do things no one else can. They just can. It just is. They just do. There is no way to articulate in a way that we can hold onto; it’s elusive like smoke.
I think of Wayne Gretzky who won the MVP of the NHL his first eight years in the league. Stop and think about that. Blows my freaking mind. The Great One was asked how he approached the sport meaning how come he was so much better than everyone else who had ever played hockey. He said he skated to where the puck was going to be, not where it was.
Jokic plays basketball in a similar fashion. He seems to see his teammate coming open and hits him with a pass before anyone else can have that vision. It’s instinctual. We don’t see it; he does. We don’t know how or why. His brain processes information at ChatGPT speeds compared with all the other NBA players who are also the best of the best anywhere. They’re playing basketball and he’s playing some other game that none of them and none of us can see or even imagine.
Already, right now, if he never played another basketball game he will be remembered as one of the Top 10 and maybe Top 5 and maybe Top 1 greatest basketball players who has ever lived. His player efficiency rating spanning his entire career – an advanced metric that reflects how great a player is statistically – surpasses everyone who has played roundball. Higher than MJ. Higher than LeBron. Higher than Bird and Magic.
It’s absurd how many records he’s breaking. When geniuses are being geniuses there’s a tendency to just shrug our shoulders when they keep being geniuses yet we fail to stop and appreciate them fully when they’re at their peak power which is where Jokic is now.
One hundred years from now they’ll still be talking about the spectacular passing, rebounding, and scoring superman that Jokic was. Even then there will be no logical explanation as to why.
He’s beyond great. He’s beyond all the superlative words you would come up with. He’s above all that somewhere far up in the sky where we really can’t relate to what he’s doing or how he does it.
It’s not sensible that he’s as great as he is based on his foot speed, jumping ability, and physique – all three of which are pedestrian at best by NBA standards. It doesn’t make sense that he’s 7 feet tall and plays point guard better than every other point guard ever has and makes three-point shots as frequently as every other great shooter in the league.
Nobody’s supposed to be able to do what he does. No one has ever done what he’s doing. Where did this guy come from? Serbia is the answer but that’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking how he got so much more skilled at basketball than all the other millions of guys who practice really hard – many perhaps even more than he has – but can’t play as well as he can night after night season after season?
It doesn’t add up. But it’s true at the same time. A complete and utterly confounding mystery about a guy who, just as amazingly, doesn’t want any credit for what he’s doing and never touts his talents which is so unlike virtually every other basketball or sports star has been when they reach the top of their sports.Doesn’t want attention. Doesn’t want to talk about how great he is. Prefers to pass to a teammate for an assist rather than score. Doesn’t want more adulation; wants less. Doesn’t want more MVPs; wants everybody to stop asking him about it. Doesn’t know what to say when asked last night after the game how he felt becoming the first guy ever to score 31 points and add 21 rebounds and 22 assists. Let’s stop right there. He got 22 assists last night – more than any big game ever has in a basketball game. Doesn’t want to talk about breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s records. Doesn’t do anything arrogant. Doesn’t act like an entitled person who has earned and deserves all the money and fame he’s collected. Doesn’t want anyone to know he gave a $10,000 tip to a waitress recently just to be kind.
He was asked in an interview recently how he would like to be remembered. It took him quite a while to answer. Wanted to say what was in his heart.
“I want to be remembered as a person who always tried to do the right thing,” he said.
You’re doing the right thing, Nikola. While so many of society’s superstars don’t, you show us how that’s done. You are the Albert Einstein of basketball. Wayne Gretzky was a hockey genius. Greg Maddux was a pitching genius. Tony Gwynn was a hitting genius. You are a basketball genius.
You stand alone at the top of the basketball kingdom. We gaze up at you and wonder. We don’t understand and never will.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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